The Plant Man column
for publication the week of 05/23/04 - 05/29/04
(772 words)


The Plant Man
by Steve Jones
www.landsteward.org


Container water garden: a fun and easy project!


A water feature is a charming addition to your landscape. But with
water
comes the potential problem of mosquitoes!

If you aren't able to live by the ocean or beside a lake or river, you
can
always bring the water to you in the form of a water garden. Today
I'll give
you some ideas and resources for a water garden and hopefully show you
that
water does not always come with a "skeeter farm!"

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about "rain gardens" as a way to make
use of
stormwater run-off in a way that served both practical and aesthetic
purposes. If you missed that column, you can find it (and all previous
columns) at www.landsteward.org Click on "The Plant Man" then scroll
down to
find the rain garden column.

Unlike a rain garden, a water garden is a decorative feature that you
keep
filled with water, rather than allowing it to dry up between rain
storms.

Water gardens can vary from a large pond to a small pot on your patio.
As
long as it includes both water and living plants... it's essentially a
water
garden! If this is your first venture, I suggest you consider a
container
water garden as a way to test your interest and skill level without
investing a lot of time or money.

I found an excellent resource on the Internet that you will find very
helpful if you're thinking about adding any kind of water feature to
your
landscape. You can find a direct link to their web site
http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/CoopE...ater/water.htm
from this column archived at my web site. The horticultural experts
at
Colorado State University offer a lot of practical advice and many
excellent
pictures of water gardens.

If you decide on a container water garden, a good size would be 12 to
24
inches wide by 12 to16 inches deep. You can use just about any type of
container, as long as it is non-porous and non-toxic. Placing a liner
inside
a wooden barrel (or a half barrel) can provide a rustic look, and of
course
plastic containers are both lightweight and easy to use. Consider
grouping
two or more water garden containers – of differing heights and sizes –
for a
really pleasing effect.

The Colorado State horticulturists point out that the "golden rule" is
that
the plants should not occupy more than 2/3 of the water's surface to
allow
for growth and essential air circulation.

There are four different categories of plants for water gardens:

Floating plants
Floating plants float freely on the surface and shade the water,
reducing
the amount of sunlight needed by algae. Examples: Water Hyacinth,
Water
Lettuce, Parrots' Feather.

Surface plants
Although surface plants also float on the surface, their roots are in
the
soil below the surface. Examples: Water lilies, Lotus, Water
Hawthorne,
Yellow Floating Heart.

Submerged (oxygenating) plants
These plants maintain the water quality by feeding on the nitrogen
from
decaying plants (depriving algae of a food source) and creating
oxygen.
Examples: Hornwort, Cabomba, Jungle Vall.

Bog plants
More suited for pond-type environments than container water gardens.
Examples include: Horsetail Rush, aquatic Canna, purple or pink
Pickerel
Rush, variegated Water Celery, Black Taro.

I suggest submerging a low-flow pump to your container as way of
keeping the
water fresh. If this was a pond, or a larger, more permanent water
feature,
you could bury the electric cable. That's not practical with a
container
water garden, but if you use a dark-colored cable (not the neon orange
kind!) it can become fairly inconspicuous.

You'll want to position your self-contained water garden where it can
enjoy
about six hours of sunshine per day. If you place your container on a
small
dolly, you can even move it around!

As for mosquitoes, container water gardens are far less likely than
standing
water to be a breeding place for mosquito larvae because living plants
keep
the water from becoming stagnant. If you DO notice skeeter larvae,
over
fill the container and let the larvae gently flow over the top with
the
water.

In a future column, I'll suggest ways for keeping mosquitoes and other
pests
away from your landscape. Meanwhile, enjoy the sight and sound of
your
container water garden, and drop me an e-mail if you have questions or
comments.

The Plant Man is here to help. Send you questions about trees, shrubs
and
landscaping to and for resources and additional
information, including archived Plant Man columns, visit
www.landsteward.org
where you can also subscribe to Steve's free e-mailed newsletter.